Fighting games are full of cartoonishly evil freaks and creeps. Street Fighter’s M. Bison deliberately siphoned out any lingering goodness in him to get stronger. King of Fighters’ Rugal killed his opponents and turned them into statues. As for Mortal Kombat’s Shao Kahn, his giant skull mask, hammer, and overwhelming cheapness speak for themselves.

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Tekken is no different, and not any more subtle, given the series has had mercenaries, murderers, and other malcontents in its roster. But some fighters are worse than others, to the point where even assassins look family-friendly by comparison. These are Tekken’s most evil characters.

Updated February 15, 2024 by David Heath:Tekken 8 has been out for a few weeks now, and has lived up to expectations and more thus far. Its single-player content was a vast improvement over Tekken 7, and its new, more aggressive approach to gameplay has found favor with fans for the most part.

It also still has its fair share of evil, as Kazuya Mishima ramps up his plan with attempted genocide, wiping out the nations of whoever loses in his martial arts tournament (as one does). Only Jin Kazama can stop him, though his record isn't exactly clean either, nor is that of some other Tekken characters. So, this list has been updated with a few more candidates for the series' evilest characters.

12 Reina Mishima

Purple Lightning

• Debut: Tekken 8
• Crimes: Aims to follow in her father's footsteps
• Defense: Hasn't really done anything...yet

T8 is still relatively new, and most of Reina Mishima's deals are revealed in its Story Mode. So, it would be spoiler territory to get into her and what she does. But she isn't going around murdering people willy-nilly, getting possessed by demons, using satellite lasers on people, or starting a new World War for fun.

However, she does idolize her dear old granddad Heihachi, right down to mixing up her Taido moves with Heihachi's brand of Mishima-style Karate. She wants to follow in his footsteps, take control of the Zaibatsu, and continue the family tradition of abusing her relatives. So, her record is squeaky clean for now, but she definitely wants to do some damage in the future.

11 Sergei Dragunov

The White Angel Of Death

• Debut: Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
• Crimes: Attempted to arrest Devil Jin for military research, aiding Kazuya's G-Corporation in their attempts at world domination
• Defense: Didn't succeed in capturing Devil Jin, and often worked on behalf of his superiors

Spetsnaz agent Sergei Dragunov looks more evil than he actually is. He looks intimidating enough and has the power to back up his words. As a military operative, he was so effective he earned the nicknames "White Angel of Death" and "White Reaper." It was enough for the Russian government to send him into the 5th King of Iron Fist tournament to try and capture Devil Jin on their behalf for experimentation.

But most of his evil deeds are non-canon what-if scenarios. If he won T5: DR, he would have been the one torturing Jin personally. If he secured Azazel's power, he'd have killed Raven with an explosive. But he did neither and even helped defend Russia from the Mishima Zaibatsu. The worst thing he's done thus far is side with Kazuya, though he still shows his morality is as gray as a grim winter's sky.

10 Kazumi Mishima

Conflicted Killer

• Debut: Tekken 2 (lore), Tekken 7 (in-person)
• Crimes: Attempted murder
• Defense: Split-personality caused by the Devil Gene

Kazumi Mishima was part of the Hachijō clan, a family of cursed assassins who targeted people they thought could be serious threats, like Kazumi’s husband Heihachi. Though she loved him, she knew his ambition would make things worse for the world. It took her family curse, the Devil Gene, for her to act on it. In her Devil form, she tried to kill Heihachi, using his feelings for her against him.

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But her plan didn’t work: Heihachi killed her, and his plans would go unchecked. Her split personality made it unclear just who the “real” Kazumi was: the peaceful, loving wife or the violent spirit of retribution. Plus, knowing how Heihachi and Kazuya would turn out, she may have had a point. Regardless of who was in control, her failure had dire consequences.

9 Jinpachi Mishima

The Strongest Fist

• Debut: Tekken (lore), Tekken 5 (in-person)
• Crimes: Attempted destruction of the world
• Defense: Split-personality caused by demonic possession, sought to end the threat through death via combat

Speaking of split personalities, Heihachi’s father, Jinpachi Mishima, was actually a good man in life. He was the founder of the Mishima Zaibatsu, and a kindly grandfather to Kazuya when he was a kid. But Heihachi had bigger goals for the Zaibatsu. He took over the company and then imprisoned Jinpachi in the Honmaru building's foundations, leaving him to starve to death.

Revived by an evil spirit decades later and freed after the building was destroyed, Jinpachi took control of the Zaibatsu in his son’s absence. The spirit wanted to take him over completely and destroy the world. While Jinpachi wanted someone to kill him before that could come to pass. He was essentially on par with Kazumi as his evil side wasn’t really “him” per se. But it made him a deadlier threat than his late daughter-in-law.

8 Feng Wei

God Fist

• Debut: Tekken 5
• Crimes: Murder, assault & battery
• Defense: Has a strict code of honor, and doesn't hold any ambitions beyond getting stronger

It's a little odd to put Feng Wei ahead of two of the series' main bosses. But Kazumi was torn and affected by the Devil Gene, while Jinpachi was essentially looking for someone to kill him before his power got out of control. When Feng Wei killed his master, Wu Zihao, and roamed dojos around the world looking for people to beat up, he was of sound mind and body.

He yearns to be the strongest fighter on earth and fights to satisfy his lust for power. Zihao, Asuka Kazama's father, and many more martial arts masters and students were just stepping stones on his quest to be the ultimate warrior. His only roadblock was Leroy, who defeated him and scolded him for his heartless technique. Feng Wei can accept a loss, but not criticism. It drove him to increase his attacks, hoping to prove Leroy wrong in their rematch.

7 Bryan Fury

Harbinger Of Chaos

• Debut: Tekken 3
• Crimes: Drug trafficking, murder, assault & battery, destruction of property
• Defense: Victim of Dr Abel's machinations

Even before he died, Bryan Fury was bad news. He was a corrupt Interpol officer who worked with the Hong Kong drug trade until he was killed in a shootout. After Dr Abel revived him with experimental cybernetic enhancements, Bryan was sent after Yoshimitsu to retrieve research data that would expand upon Abel’s cyborg project. He'd fail in his goal, and Abel would leave him to die again when his enhancements began to fail.

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Yoshimitsu and his benefactor, Dr. Bosconovitch fixed Bryan's faults as a peace offering, and he thanked them by smashing Bosconovitch, then killing many of Yoshimitsu’s Manji clan members. All he cares about is hurting others for his own pleasure, regardless of whether he gets hit back. As such, he’s the first consciously and intentionally evil character on the list.

6 Dr. Abel

Mad Scientist

• Debut: Tekken 2 (lore), Tekken 3 (in-person)
• Crimes: Sabotage, attempted murder, unethical experiments, corporate espionage, destruction of property
• Defense: Acting on the Mishima Zaibatsu's orders

One of Bryan’s victims was his ‘father’, Dr. Abel. He was a scientist whose work would often be ignored in favor of Dr. Bosconovitch’s projects, like the Jack robots, etc. He hated his rival enough to destroy Jack-2 with an orbital laser, revive Bryan Fury to spy on Bosconovitch through his ninja friend Yoshimitsu and try the laser again on the rebuilt Gun Jack with less successful results.

The doctor would abandon Bryan Fury to work for the Zaibatsu directly, giving Heihachi his orbital laser tech. He would lead the company's various science projects, like experimenting with Ogre’s blood and the Devil Gene, to see if they could extend Heihachi's lifespan. The doctor would use anyone and anything to get ahead and shrug off the consequences. So, no one was particularly upset when Bryan smashed him across his lab.

5 Ogre

The God Of Combat

• Debut: Tekken 3
• Crimes: Mass murder, mass destruction, assault & battery
• Defense: It is its nature to absorb strength from others, and it's possible to survive encounters with it

As Tekken’s first non-Mishima boss, Ogre was a pretty nasty piece of work. Originating from space, he landed on Earth as a ‘weapon of war’ according to Native American legends. It knew how everything, be it natural or artificial, was put together on sight, and it could absorb them to make itself stronger. Kind of like the Pillar Men in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure if they had second forms that looked like Berserk’s Nosferatu Zodd mixed with the Predator.

Once freed, it went after fighters like a giant, Mesoamerican Michael Myers. It cared little for humanity beyond what it could take from its strongest members. Still, as intimidating as it looked, Ogre’s kill count got retroactively reduced when many of the series’ classic characters came back. Baek barely survived his encounter against it, while Paul actually beat its base form before Jin put it down for good. For a malevolent force, it's not as strong as it looks.

4 Jin Kazama

Lightning Of Fate

• Debut: Tekken 3
• Crimes: Attempted murder, starting World War 3
• Defense: Split-personality caused by Devil Gene, swayed by the demon Azazel into engineering the world war

Poor Jin Kazama. When he debuted in Tekken 3 in 1997, he was one of the most beloved fighters in the fandom. If he wasn’t the best hero in a fighting game, he was a good contender. Even when he got his Devil form, he was more torn between giving in to his urge to kill the Mishimas or doing the right thing, sparing them at the end of Tekken 4.

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But by Tekken 6, he had taken over the Mishima Zaibatsu and unleashed its might against Kazuya’s G-Corporation. While Azazel had some influence, Jin was of sound mind and body when he started his World War. He deliberately destroyed cities, which killed and injured lots of people, to awaken Azazel and wipe out the Devil Gene. Needless to say, it didn’t work. Tekken8 has him seeking redemption for his past misdeeds, but unfortunately, it might be too little, too late.

3 Azazel

The Rectifier Of All Things

• Debut: Tekken 6
• Crimes: Manipulation, murder, destruction, possession, intense hatred for humanity
• Defense: None

Azazel rarely appears on anyone’s favorite Tekken boss list. It was as difficult as Jinpachi and had some Ogre-like moves, but little build-up beyond being the big bad boss players had to smash in Tekken 6. Nonetheless, it’s still an intimidating force that’s manipulated events behind the scenes. Thousands of years ago, it used to terrorize humanity until it was beaten by Zafina's ancestors and sealed in a tomb.

However, it was foretold that it would break free when two “dark stars” met in battle. Azazel's spirit found one of those “dark stars” in Jin and convinced him it was the source of his Devil Gene. It insinuated that, if there was enough chaos, it could break free and face Jin in battle. Azazel thought this would be the ticket to freedom. Instead, he would be destroyed by Jin and reduced to a spirit form held in Zafina’s arm, but it still threatens to overwhelm her, come back, and seek vengeance again.

2 Kazuya Mishima

Cold-Blooded Oppressor

• Debut: Tekken
• Crimes: Murder, attempted murder, assault & battery, war crimes, attempted world domination and genocide
• Defense: Split-personality via the Devil Gene, abusive upbringing

The reason Jin turned bad was that he worked for his dad, Kazuya Mishima. The original Tekken set him up as the traditional hero fighting his evil dad, only to reveal at the end that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Sure, he wanted to avenge the death of his mother Kazumi, and his near-death experience when Heihachi threw him off a cliff. But he also inherited his dad's ambitious nature and his mom's Devil Gene.

He chucked Heihachi off the same cliff and took over the Zaibatsu, giving in to his Devil form. Though Heihachi came back and tossed him into a volcano, he was revived by the rival G-Corporation. He’d run the company against the Zaibatsu, plotting his schemes to control the world, with little care for who gets hurt in his path. If he was willing to kill a relative he liked in Grandpa Jinpachi, he only had the worst intentions for the rest of his family.

1 Heihachi Mishima

The King Of Iron Fist

• Debut: Tekken
• Crimes: Child abuse, attempted murder, murder, assault & battery, unethical experiments, corporate espionage, manipulation, etc
• Defense: None

Heihachi Mishima wasn’t an all-powerful demon, though this didn’t stop him from trying to use the supernatural for his own ends. His ambition to hold the world in his hand led him to lock his father away and take the Zaibatsu for himself. He then killed his wife (albeit in self-defense), and threw his son Kazuya off a cliff to “test his strength”. Even his altruism had ulterior motives, as he adopted Lee Chaolan just to spite his son.

Decades later, he’d use his grandson Jin in a plot to control Ogre, then shoot him down when he outlived his usefulness. All this did was reveal Jin’s Devil form, and herald the return of Kazuya. After that, his attempts to siphon Jin’s Devil power, retake the Zaibatsu, and kill Kazuya with Dr. Abel’s orbital laser seemed like small potatoes. It takes a special person to outdo two literal devils and a demon. Maybe Heihachi’s hair horns weren’t just for show.

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